Artist Learns Design

Linda Comins

Health Writer

lcomins@theintelligencer.net

Artist Moonjung Kang is having a busy time in Korea during her sabbatical semester away from West Liberty University.

Kang, a professor of visual communication design at West Liberty, has completed special training in Korea on User Experience design. She plans to share her newfound skill for intuitive software user interface design with WLU students next spring.

Before returning to campus, Kang will be the featured speaker at the International Conference on Convergence Content 2018 on Dec.18 and she will participate in the International Digital Exhibition show to be held Dec. 17-19.

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Moundsville author C.J. Plogger is writing his third book on a topic related to the former West Virginia Penitentiary.

He appeared Tuesday at the Ohio County Public Library’s Lunch With Books program to talk about his latest book, “Pronounced Dead: The Executions at the West Virginia Penitentiary.”

Plogger said he hopes to finish work on his next book later this month or in January. The book, titled “Wayward Genius,” tells the story of notorious inmate Ronald T. Williams, who killed a state trooper outside the prison in Moundsville during a mass escape in November 1979 and killed another man in Arizona while on the lam.

The author told the library audience that he has been allowed to meet with Williams, who reportedly has an IQ of 179, in a small room at the Mount Olive Correctional Complex once every three weeks.

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West Virginia University held a celebration of West Virginia authors Friday morning. Of note, three of the eight participating writers spoke at the Ohio County Public Library in Wheeling for Lunch With Books programs in recent months.

The featured authors included Lunch With Books “alumni” Nancy L. Abrams, who wrote “The Climb from Salt Lick: A Memoir of Appalachia”; Travis D. Stimeling, who compiled “Songwriting in Contemporary West Virginia: Profiles and Reflections,” and Natalie Sypolt, whose collection of short stories is titled “The Sound of Holding Your Breath.”

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An era in Ohio County will end this week when the last remaining Community Educational Outreach Service club in the county holds its final meeting.

The Ohio County Community Educational Outreach Service and Green Acres CEOS Club will meet at Christ United Methodist Church, 1232 National Road, Wheeling, at 11 a.m. Wednesday for a holiday gathering.

Linda Wade, club president, said it will be the last gathering of CEOS members in Ohio County because the county’s group plans to disband at the end of the year.

The CEOS organization still has clubs functioning in Marshall County and in other counties in West Virginia.

At one time, several CEOS clubs (known originally as homemakers’ clubs) existed in Ohio County. However, the number declined gradually as the local clubs closed in recent years.

A number of factors have affected the viability of CEOS clubs locally. Changing demographics, marked by the area’s aging population, and shifting trends seem to be the primary factors in the organization’s decline.

Traditionally, the clubs appealed mainly to women. However, most women work outside the home now so daytime meetings are problematic or impossible. In addition, social and service clubs in general have difficulty in attracting new members as women’s lives become busier and they pursue different interests in their limited free time.

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The eyes of a grateful nation turned to the nation’s capital and the state of Texas this past week in remembrance of the life and legacy of former President George Herbert Walker Bush.

The contributions of the nation’s 41st president were recalled and celebrated during moving funeral services at Washington National Cathedral and at Bush’s home parish, St. Martin’s Episcopal Church in Houston. The combination of miliary precision, religious liturgy and musical tributes provided an impressive and fitting tribute to Bush, whose wartime bravery, decades of dedicated public service and humanitarian efforts should serve as an example for all leaders.

For George H.W. Bush, a desire for a “kinder and gentler” nation was not a cliche, but signified a genuine call to action. May we all be inspired by his heartfelt example to combine service with civility.